a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Game 13 vs. DET: Where Memo doesn’t have to be in the house…

That said, this was just as easily another “lucky” win for the Jazz, who came out sluggish and produced an interminable lay-up/lay-in futility stretch unlike any those outside the SLC have ever seen.

Although the Jazz eventually pulled out an OT win, these sobering facts remain:

–They have no idea that playing for a full 48 means you don’t have to play for 53.
–If Boozer would play every quarter like he has the 4th in the past two games, the starters could be sitting pretty on the bench and young guys that need playing time to develop can get it. Playing one quarter out of four ain’t gonna cut it.
–Deron needs to figure out how to suppress Frustrated DWill in favor of Angry DWill.
–Fundamentals are still MIA.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million times more: There’s no bigger X-factor than the AK factor.

If this were a young team, I could attribute all the mental lapses, bobbling, around-the-rim ineptitude, and WTF moments to inexperience and youth. However, the core of this team has been together for five years already and there is no excuse for the way they fail to bring it every night. It’s no wonder that the ESA is so empty this season. Although they’ve won three straight, these have not been feelgood wins and there’s something blocking me from getting fully behind my team. Something is still off, and something still needs to change.

Fun fact: Phil Johnson was [Pistons Head Coach] John Kuester’s first NBA coach in Kansas City.

Update: It turns out that Booner was on that Kansas City team as well. Small world, eh? And just as a matter of fact (thanks Wikipedia!) Booner is first All-Time in turnovers and second All-Time in fouls in the ABA lol. He’s also 3rd in scoring and 6th in assists, and once played 1,041 consecutive games. The more you know…)